Noodles & Company (NASDAQ:NDLS) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jake Bartlett: Okay. And just a question on value perceptions and the impact. And obviously, when you took the large price increase in, I think February it was, and traffic went negative pretty – further negative pretty quickly. I guess my anticipation was that would kind of somewhat work itself out over time, that time would kind of help there as consumers just got used to it. Is that something that you are – it doesn’t feel like you are seeing really that. And so, the question is, are you seeing value perceptions just starting to kind of recover just with time, or do you think that really for you to see a meaningful improvement in traffic, it’s going to really require all the measures you are undertaking?

Dave Boennighausen: No, it’s a great question. And what we see is, we did see improvement relative from Q2 to Q3, and we think a component of that is the ability for us to quickly pivot and address some of the value opportunities. That said, we do believe that this is the time for us to look at overall transforming the menu, the layout structure and the pricing structure to really optimize it for the long-term. So, over the course of time, I think you will just continue to see an accretive nature to the benefit of that, especially as we kind of transform some aspects of the menu and are able to be more compelling for maybe that last guest, that guest that we potentially lost that we are still having a bit of challenges bringing back.

Jake Bartlett: Okay. And it was last year at this time you first gave us your view on 2024 COGS. You had, I think been looking at locking down your chicken supply and price. Anything you can tell us about expectations in ‘24 and what kind of visibility you have on the commodity inflation side?

Mike Hynes: Hi Jake, this is Mike. And your memory is correct. This is the time when we are talking to our suppliers and trying to lock as much of our price as we can for 2024. Where we are in the process right now, it’s a little early to give ‘24 guidance on where we expect inflation or deflation to be. But our goal is to lock a substantial portion of our basket at prices that are very close or even I will just say close to ‘23 levels.

Dave Boennighausen: Yes. I think one thing that’s encouraging is our basket here, Jake, is probably beneficial. Certainly you are seeing beef and steak, which is not a significant portion of our menu basket, that’s been one of the more challenging markets, so that’s not as impactful for us. And then chicken, which was the largest and has been the largest driver of our COGS improvement, our initial conversations, as we contract that ingredient also, we are pretty pleased with how those are progressing.

Jake Bartlett: Great. And then, last question is the visibility on 2024 development. Maybe just remind me of what your thinking is on the pace kind of in rough terms in ‘24. And then, how many signed leases do you have? What’s your progress so far in terms of ‘24 development?

Dave Boennighausen: Yes. I think we are happy with the new restaurant performance. We continue to be pleased with those, as well as feel that there is big unit growth opportunity ahead of us. Currently where we are at, Jake, we do expect 2024 growth will look pretty similar to 2023 from a numeric perspective, franchise potentially playing a bit of a bigger part than it did last year. As we look at where we are at from a development pipeline, currently, I mean obviously it’s still a fluid environment. We expect it to be a little bit more evenly balanced than what we have seen in prior years. And all of those restaurants, we have enough restaurants to hit that pipeline that are already under lease. It’s more so just the timing. You can’t control around landlord delivery and aspects like that. But all of those sites are accounted for in the pipeline.

Jake Bartlett: Great. Thank you so much.

Operator: This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Dave Boennighausen for closing remarks.

Dave Boennighausen: Thank you, Stacey. We know it’s yet another busy earnings season, so appreciate everybody’s time today, and please have a safe and relaxing holiday.

Operator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

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